LEADING experts in dermatology and plastic surgery have joined forces to create a skin cancer facility for patients seeking rapid and expert treatment.
Waterfront Private Hospital in Edinburgh has officially launched Scotland’s most advanced and efficient skin cancer clinic, enabling rapid access consultations, one-stop biopsies and direct access to definitive surgical treatments – all under one roof.
Led by Dr Ben Aldridge, the UK’s only dual-qualified Consultant in both Dermatology and Plastic Surgery, the service is supported by Dr Kazem Nassar, an esteemed NHS Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon.
After graduating in 2002 from University of Edinburgh Medical School, Dr Aldridge has gone on to become a preeminent skin cancer expert. He completed multiple skin focused advanced training fellowships including at the UK’s National Skin Hospital.
He has a PhD in skin lesion diagnostics, publishing extensively in this subject along with co-authoring national skin cancer guidelines and is also Chairman of South East Scotland’s Melanoma Multidisciplinary team.
He said: “Our dual approach means we can combine dermatology and plastic surgery expertise in one consultation, saving patients multiple visits.
“Our focus is not just on removing patients’ skin cancer effectively but also ensuring the best cosmetic results for each individual, with a bespoke approach that draws on our extensive aesthetic surgical training.
“Many skin cancers are on the head and neck, requiring reconstruction due to limited spare tissue, which we handle expertly using advanced plastic surgery techniques and cosmetic surgical principles.
“We’re confident in saying we provide the fastest and most efficient private skin cancer service in Scotland and our goal is to be the definitive place for private skin cancer treatment, making a tangible difference to patients’ lives.”
NHS waiting lists have expanded significantly since the pandemic, with patients often waiting up to 12 months or more for non-high risk dermatological assessments.
Waterfront Private Hospital is stepping in to help address this crisis, removing many of the steps typically required in the process.
Even within an urgent skin cancer pathway both NHS and Private patients can expect multiple different and separate steps; starting with a GP referral, often followed by dermatology consultations, diagnostic biopsies, plastics surgery consultations, before final definitive treatment.
With the NHS under increasing strain, Waterfront Private Hospital provides a streamlined alternative, easing the pressure on public health services while delivering state-of-the-art care.
Patients can expect a premium healthcare experience, where the hospital’s boutique aesthetic is paired with cutting-edge medical expertise. The hospital is known for its highly personalised care, ensuring each patient receives attentive follow-up from their surgical team.
Opened in recent months, Waterfront Private Hospital in Granton, Edinburgh, is a family-owned institution founded by the renowned Dr Omar Quaba and his father, Dr Awf Quaba. The Quaba surname is among the most recognised in UK cosmetic surgery.
Alarm Bells: Alan Milburn joins the Department of Health and Social Care’s board to ‘support the government’s ambitious plans for reform’
Alan Milburn has been appointed Lead Non-Executive Member to the board of the Department of Health and Social Care.
Mr Milburn ‘brings experience at the highest levels to help transform the health and care system‘
This (Labour) government is determined to work with experts who can provide the best advice to help rebuild an NHS fit for the future
Alan Milburn has been appointed Lead Non-Executive Member to the board of the Department of Health and Social Care.
The former New Labour Health Secretary has a ‘proven track record of reducing waiting lists and improving satisfaction in the NHS’.
Milburn is also a strong advocate of private healthcare involvement in the NHS. Back in 2015, Milburn intervened in the British election campaign to criticise Labour’s health plans, which would limit private sector involvement in the NHS. Milburn was criticised for doing so while having a personal financial interest in the private health sector.
The current Labour government says the NHS is broken and it is the mission of this government to fix it and make the health service fit for the future. As part of this national mission, experts are being brought in to help develop policy, and NHS staff and patients have been invited to share their experience and ideas to change the NHS at Change.NHS.gov.uk.
Members of the department board provide independent advice and expertise to inform the department’s strategy, performance and governance and the Lead Non-Executive Member provides additional support to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in his role as Chair of the board.
The Labour government says that, as a former Secretary of State, Alan brings experience at the highest levels of helping transform the health and care system – but health trade unions will be very wary of Milburn’s appointment.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “As Secretary of State, Alan made the reforms which helped deliver the shortest waiting times and highest patient satisfaction in the history of the NHS.
“This government has inherited a broken health service with some of the longest waiting times and lowest patient satisfaction in history. I am delighted to welcome Alan to the department board, where he will offer advice on turning the NHS around once again.
“His unique expertise and experience will be invaluable and he has an outstanding track record of delivering better care for patients.”
Lead Non-Executive Director Alan Milburn said: “I am delighted to be appointed to this role.
“Having spent three decades working in health policy, I have never seen the NHS in a worse state. Big reforms will be needed to make it fit for the future.
“I am confident this government has the right plans in place to transform the health service and the health of the nation. I’m looking forward to working with them to achieve that mission.”
Due to ‘the requirements of the role and the unique expertise and experience Alan Milburn brings’, he was appointed directly by the Secretary of State on following consultation with the Commissioner for Public Appointments, and in compliance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.
The Department of Health and Social Care would like to thank Samantha Jones for all her work and support as non-executive director since February 2023.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland, the national healthcare improvement body and regulator of private healthcare services for Scotland, has published the latest inspection reports for private healthcare services.
In Scotland, private hospitals and private clinics provided by doctors, nurses, dental care professionals or midwifes are required to be registered with our organisation. We currently have over 500 private healthcare services across Scotland that are registered or completing registration.
It is only by choosing a private healthcare service registered with Healthcare Improvement Scotland that patients can be assured that the services they use meet the high standards of quality expected of registered services.
Our organisation published the inspection reports for a total of six private clinics and hospitals across Scotland.
The focus of the inspection to the Spire Hospital, Murrayfield, was on the safe delivery of the service’s provision of systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT).
As the healthcare improvement body for Scotland, Healthcare Improvement Scotland is also the regulator for private healthcare services, including private hospitals, hospices, private psychiatric hospitals and clinics, which provide a wide range of services from cosmetic procedures to wholly private dentistry, health screening, travel clinics and others.
Inspections of services are carried out to ensure that the providers comply with standards and regulations.
Lynsey Cleland, Director of Quality Assurance at Healthcare Improvement Scotland, comments:“It is vital that the people of Scotland who opt to use private healthcare services receive the best quality and standard of care, which is why these clinics must be registered with us and must submit to regular inspection.
“The majority of the private clinics we regulate provide cosmetic interventions. It is crucial that we provide assurances for the public that these procedures are carried out in safe and regulated environments.
“Registered clinics are required to demonstrate that they take the safety of their clients seriously, that they operate to the highest standards and are committed to continually improving the service they provide for clients.
“People should always check that a clinic is registered with Healthcare Improvement Scotland before undertaking treatments.”
You can find out more about the regulation of private clinics in Scotland by listening to our podcast episode:
Thirteen new community diagnostic centres are opening across England to deliver more than 742,000 additional scans, tests and checks a year
The Elective Recovery Taskforce – formed last year to identify ways to cut waiting times – publishes plan to maximise independent sector capacity to treat NHS patients more quickly
Measures include better use of data to help the NHS identify potential opportunities for the independent sector to support patient care, and expanding training opportunities for staff
Thirteen new community diagnostic centres (CDCs) – including eight independently run CDCs – are being launched across England as part of UK government plans to use the independent sector to cut NHS waiting lists, Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay will announce today.
Five of these independent sector-led CDCs will operate in the South West of England, with permanent sites fully opening in 2024 in Redruth, Bristol, Torbay, Yeovil and Weston Super Mare. Additional diagnostic testing capacity is already being rolled out in the region via the use of mobile diagnostic facilities, to provide additional diagnostic services while these sites are constructed.
Three others will open in Southend, Northampton and South Birmingham – with the former commencing activity from November and the latter two from December. These independently run CDCs will help to make it easier for patients to receive checks closer to home and will remain free at the point of use for patients. This adds to the four CDCs run by the independent sector that are already operational in Brighton, North Solihull, Oxford, and Salford.
Five more NHS-run centres will also open across the country, delivering on our ambition to open up to 160 across the country by 2025, backed by £2.3 billion. These will be in Hornchurch, Skegness, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stoke-on-Trent.
Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve Barclay, said: “We must use every available resource to deliver life-saving checks to ease pressure on the NHS.
“By making use of the available capacity in the independent sector, and enabling patients to access this diagnostic capacity free at the point of need, we can offer patients a wider choice of venues to receive treatment and in doing so diagnose major illnesses quicker and start treatments sooner.
“The Elective Recovery Taskforce has identified additional diagnostic capacity that is available in the independent sector which we will now use more widely to enable patients to access the care they need quicker.”
As well as being more convenient for patients, CDCs drive efficiency across the NHS by shielding elective diagnostic services from wider hospital pressures.
The government has also set out a range of new measures to unlock spare capacity within the independent healthcare sector. This comes following actions from the Elective Recovery Taskforce which was established last December.
Chaired by Health Minister Will Quince and made up of academics and experts from the NHS and independent sector, the taskforce looked for ways to go further to bust the Covid backlogs and reduce waiting times for patients.
The measures include a commitment to using data on independent sector providers to identify where they have capacity to take on more NHS patients to help clear the backlog and increasing the use of the independent sector in training junior NHS staff.
These thirteen new CDCs will provide capacity for more than 742,000 extra tests a year once all are fully operational, bolstering access to care.
Independent sector led centres will function like NHS-run CDCs, but staff will be employed by the independent sector, which also owns the buildings. The South West network will be run by InHealth, a specialist provider of diagnostic tests which has worked with hospitals and commissioners across the health service for more than 30 years. By utilising independent sector staff, the NHS will be able to keep pace with rising demand in the region and deliver a high number of tests for patients.
There are currently 114 CDCs open across the country, which have delivered an additional 4.6 million tests, checks and scans since July 2021. Alongside this, significant progress has already been made to cut waiting lists, with 18-month and two-year waits virtually eliminated.
Health Minister and Elective Recovery Taskforce Chair, Will Quince, said: “We have already made significant progress in bringing down waiting lists, with 18 month waits virtually eliminated.
“I chaired the Elective Recovery Taskforce to turbocharge these efforts and help patients get the treatment they need.
“These actions will bolster capacity across the country and give patients more choice over where and when they are treated.”
The taskforce aims to form strong local relationships between NHS organisations and the independent sector. This will help to support improved training opportunities for junior doctors through first-hand experience of procedures. This follows the NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan which will deliver the biggest training expansion in NHS history and recruit and retain hundreds of thousands more staff over the next 15 years.
The department has also published its response to a consultation on a new procurement system known as the Provider Selection Regime, which will give commissioners of healthcare services more flexibility when selecting NHS and independent sector healthcare providers. This is intended to remove unnecessary levels of competitive tendering and barriers to integrating care, which will help to promote collaboration across the NHS and wider healthcare system.
NHS England will evaluate the independent sector’s impact on healthcare capacity and has already begun publishing regular monthly data on independent sector use, showing its contribution to tackling the backlog.
NHS England National Clinical Director for Elective Care, Stella Vig, said: “Hardworking staff across the NHS have made significant progress towards recovering elective care, and it is testament to their efforts that widespread innovative measures are already being rolled out to transform our services and bring down the longest waits for patients.
“Alongside this, we have increased our use of the independent sector by more than a third since April 2021 – carrying out 90,000 appointments and procedures every week, including more than 10,000 diagnostic tests – and independent providers will continue to play a key role as we work towards the next milestone in our recovery plan, as well as the additional one stop shops announced today as part of NHS England’s rollout of community diagnostic centres.
“As this report details, we have already made significant progress in this area, including operating mutual aid systems across both the NHS and independent sector, and by expanding My Planned Care to make it easier for patients to choose where they receive care.”
David Hare, Chief Executive of IHPN, who sat on the Taskforce, said: “The publication of this report is good news for patients. This is a real, significant step forward to unlocking more of the capital, capacity and capability of the independent sector.
“Today’s report builds on the Prime Minister’s recent welcome announcements about how the government is committed to providing patients with better choice over who provides their NHS care, as well as positive changes in how services are procured, which can help add overall capacity and speed up waiting times for NHS patients.
“The report’s commitment to open further independent sector-led Community Diagnostic Centres is also good news for patients, deploying some of the private capital that is available to build new facilities and to help ensure that more NHS patients can get the tests and scans that they need.”
Rachel Power, Chief Executive of the Patients Association, said: “We are advocates of patients having choice and welcome today’s announcement. In particular, the news that GPs will tell patients, at the point of referral, of options for treatment other than the local hospital or clinic.
“Patients in England already have a right to choose where they are treated but not all patients are aware of this right or exercise it. Our expectation is that once GPs offer patients a choice of where to receive treatment, more and more patients will choose to travel further to receive treatment if that means shorter waits.”
Justin Ash, CEO of Spire Healthcare, said: “The best way to cut waiting times for patients is for the independent sector to be fully integrated as part of the solution, and to offer patient choice.
“We welcome the Elective Recovery Taskforce’s recognition of this and are pleased that it has recommended some bold and far-reaching steps to encourage collaboration, promote patient choice and engage the independent sector to help deliver the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
“The Taskforce’s work will genuinely benefit patients, who’ll be able to choose where they can receive treatment most quickly, regardless of whether that’s at an NHS or an independent sector hospital.”
This builds on previous work to give patients greater choice. At the point of referral (for example, at a GP appointment), patients will be actively offered a list of providers which are clinically appropriate for their condition.
This will be a minimum of five providers where possible. And by October 2023, all patients waiting over 40 weeks who have not had a first outpatient appointment booked or where a decision to treat has been made but the patient does not have a date for their treatment will be able to initiate a request to transfer to another provider and receive treatment more quickly.
Last month, the Health and Social Care Secretary also convened ministers, clinical leaders and health experts for the NHS Recovery Summit to collaborate and drive forward ideas to help cut waiting lists and improve care for patients.
